´óÏó´«Ã½

(No video, sorry.)

Now, cards on the table, while I am a fan of lots of people who make music which is entirely serious and mostly devoid of sex or fun - *waves at Radiohead* - Arcade Fire have never done it for me. I want them to, they won't. You can draw your own conclusions about what that says about them or me, but the fact remains that while they make music which makes a lot of people lose their cool completely, they just leave me cold. I say this having seen the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Music album review, which is VERY POSITIVE INDEED.

Well, phooey. It's no act of cultural bravery to say you don't enjoy something other people do - even if it is JLS - and there's no glee to rubbishing something which is clearly Of Quality. But c'mon, I can't be the only person with ears who finds this to be, well, a load of maudlin silliness, can I?

Yes, it has a lot to recommend it. In fact, here are some examples:

The bit where Win Butler sings "how something so small could keep you alive" about GETTING A LETTER IN THE POST.
The way the band play like religious zealots, and you can HEAR that they do.
The reverberated whiplash crack.
The way it pulls at your attention, via the medium of wilful disregard for the normal conventions of rhythm and bar length.
That undefined woozy, ghostly whoosh noise you can sort of half-hear, pitched somewhere between a bowed saw, a pedal steel and a flute.
The way it builds from something small and sad to something huge and furious...about GETTING A LETTER IN THE POST.

But - and this is the acid test - I find I'm a happier, more productive, better person when it is taken out of the CD player and put in a drawer. So that is that.

Download: Out now


´óÏó´«Ã½ Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

"A song about innocence lost, and uncertainty in the face of rapid change."

"It's bloody Arcade Fire and this is incredibly polished Indie radio rock."

"Arcade Fire didn't let you down. As a matter of fact they took the bar and set it higher."